1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus that performs streaming distribution over a network, a method of controlling the communication apparatus, a reproduction apparatus, a method of controlling the reproduction apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a technique for performing streaming distribution over a network, there has been proposed HTTP Live Streaming (hereinafter referred to as “HLS”). HLS is an HTTP-based media streaming communication protocol, which realizes streaming between a distribution server equipped with a streaming server function and a player apparatus equipped with a client function. More specifically, the player apparatus sends a playlist acquisition request for acquisition of a playlist to the distribution server. Then, the player apparatus sends a request for distribution of video segment data (hereinafter referred to as “segments”) to a segment acquisition URL described in the acquired playlist for use in acquiring segments, decodes and reproduces the acquired segments, and displays the reproduced segments on a monitor provided in the player apparatus. By executing a series of the above-described processing operations, it is possible to realize streaming.
HLS can be applied to various networking products. For example, by applying the server function to a digital camera (camera), and the client function to an application on a PC (personal computer), it is possible to build a system for displaying images photographed by the camera (photographed moving images) on the PC over a network on a real-time basis.
Further, the system of HLS is not limited to one-to-one data communication, but it is also possible to build a system for selectively displaying images photographed by a plurality of cameras connected to the network, on the PC. In this case, the PC selects a camera photographing a moving image desired to be displayed, and accesses the selected camera to acquire a playlist and segments.
However, in the above-described system for selectively displaying, on the PC, images photographed by a plurality of cameras connected to the network, it is presupposed that video source switching is performed by the PC which is a player apparatus. This is because HLS uses HTTP, and hence all requests are issued from the PC which is a client, so that the camera which is a server cannot send a request for changing a video source to the PC. Thus, according to the conventional technique, it is difficult to provide the camera with a user interface, such as a video source-changing button.